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“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” – Thomas Edison

The roads to success are oftentimes not mapped out or paved with gold. If you want something to work, you gotta work hard to make it happen. This is a life lesson that unfortunately many fail to acknowledge and thus give up before every realizing their dreams. Hey, no one is saying the journey isn’t hard – but you can bet it will be worth it.

It’s always encouraging to hear stories of how others overcame failure and achieved success. Though what worked for them may or may not find favor in your situation, it’s great to know that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Here are some celebrities whose failures taught us to dust ourselves off and try again.

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Ladies, I already know that you know where I’m coming from with this one. You’re walking out of your apartment, thinking about all of the things you have to do today, when a man, a man you don’t know from Adam, instructs you to smile. *Sigh* There are so many things wrong with this lame azz pick up line. First, you don’t know me or what I may be going through in life right now. Second, a simple hello will do. And third, what real person, aside from a cartoon character, or a member of the Brady Bunch family walks around smiling all day long?!? As terrible as this pick up line is, it can catch you so off guard that your first instinct may be to do just what homeboy asked you to do in the first place. No! Don’t let stranger man win! Instead, hit him with one of the following responses, so he knows that the “smile” line is all the way played out.

What goes up inevitably must come down. It’s the law of gravity by Isaac Newton, but he may as well have been talking about the peaks and valleys of celebrity life. Stars are made and seemingly replaced by brighter ones almost overnight and one can’t help but wish for the originals to reclaim their place in the spotlight. So many rise and fall, but here are seven stars who need to shine even brighter once more.

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Halle Berry

Her name and face have been all over the news for everything from her baby daddy drama, engagement to her questionable choice of lacefronts. Paula Patton seems to be Hollywood’s go to woman of color these days, but there’s still a place for Ms. Berry on the silver screen.  Some may still debate whether or not she deserved her Oscar for Monster’s Ball, but she is still the first African-American actress to have been awarded the Best Actress statue, and that’s not by accident. It’s past time that she fully redeem herself from Catwoman with a role worthy of her talents.

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Some of the most underrated talent in R&B, Lil Mo and Tweet, recently collaborated for their new song, “I Love Me.” From the title of the track you might guess that the song chronicles a series of bad relationships and a woman’s final realization that she loves herself more than the trifling men she’s been messing with. I know at least some of you can relate. Check out the video below.

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The recent passing of British soul singer Amy Winehouse came as a shock to me. Not because I was naive to her problems but because I just always assumed she’d get better before it was too late. When it comes to some artists we just can’t help but wish them the best. Maybe because they left some profound impact on our lives or because we remember what they once were or used to be.

Don’t you hate when someone comes along in music that has everything you’re looking for in an artist, and then suddenly goes MIA? It hurts when you try and keep a positive outlook about their unexpected absence, hoping they’re only taking a short break and not an indefinite sabbatical, but you’re only teased with occasional features on mixtapes or paparazzi discoveries on the streets as they wear clothes no sane person would be caught dead in. But this happens far too often to a lot of our talented musicians, and breaks a little too long can have disastrous consequences if they decide to revive their careers. They’re either accepted with open arms or quietly ignored as old news. And some careers just fall apart (see Whitney…). But here are artists who, despite the constant changes in music, have reserved space on our packed iTunes lists for their hopeful returns.

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Stuff happens in life that ruins your modus operandi. You get knocked down…or, perhaps, you just get tired. No matter which profession you choose, chances are, you can or will take a hiatus from it. The madames we’ve selected below have not just “taken a hiatus” from the entertainment profession, but they’ve made considerable comebacks. Review our list, after the jump…

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